Quite by accident, I've found a great solution to the problem of plant containers getting so hot that the roots bake: double pots! Put one container inside another, alternating the drainage holes, and voila! instant shade on the root system of your potted plants. Costs twice as much in container price, but saves all those babies from the heat of the sun!
Finally got all my bonsai into real bonsai pots, the resin ones from Dallas Bonsai only cost $2 or $3 each, which is worth the price if it saves my poor children from sun stroke. All are much happier this year than last, even after the late frost and early caterpillars decimated the leaf buds. I'm not saying they are beautiful bonsai, since most of the buds that were left are growing in all the wrong directions for classic beauty, but at least they are alive, healthy, and have their feet in the shade.
And, to prevent sunscald and back budding on little tree trunks exposed to the sun, I've been cutting the bottom out of gallon containers (the cheap, flimsy kind that you can't re-use anyway), and putting them like skirts around the trunks of the trees. Looks really tacky out there, but the trunks are thickening nicely with this technique and I'm not getting so many suckers and back buds. They take off their skirts when company comes to view them.
The weather is cool but very dry this week, lovely for painting and playing outdoors, but my sinuses are so dry I can't breathe and the tiny bonsai need to be watered every day, somethymes twice. And it's only May........ can't wait for 120 degree summer, oh boy. Actually, global warming seems to be making our central Texas winters even warmer than usual, but the summers haven't been so hot. Very strange weather this millenium.......did you see the Nova episode about the Megaflood on PBS? Maybe global warming is better than another ice age, after all (LOL)
~~~Traveler in Thyme~~~
http://www.travelerinthyme.com
